Over the weekend a huge number of leaked images gave away what some of the first tranche of iPad apps will look like. Guess what? Everything we guessed about how exciting iPad will be has just been proved true–this thing’s apps will rock.

Over the weekend a huge number of leaked images gave away what some of the first tranche of iPad apps will look like. Guess what? Everything we guessed about how exciting iPad will be has just been proved true–this thing’s apps will rock.

A few weeks back I wrote about one simple iPad app, and how it may indicate the Microsoft Courier-vanquishing powers of the iPad. The idea wasn’t to upsell the prospects of the app concerned (PadNotes,) but to spark your imagination off with the sort of future advanced pieces of software that’ll be available, and to illustrate that the misconception that the iPad is just an “oversized iPhone” is completely false.

Well, check out the slew of apps screenshots that turned up in a posting over at BoyGeniusReport. These app snapshots underline one thing: The iPad is going to be a transformational mobile computing device. Check out the life-organizer app Bento for starters (screenshot below.) Its iPad implementation looks gorgeous, pretty much how an iPad multitouch app should appear, and the clever syncing with a desktop installation of the full Bento code means it’s extremely versatile.

Then peep at Omnigraffle–a full-featured graph drawing package that’ll delight math and physics students planning to use the iPad to take notes during lectures. Its UI seems absolutely aligned with what one would imagine a multitouch-screened tablet PC would be capable of.

advertisement

My personal fave from the list is Big Oven–a recipes and grocery-shopping app that makes perfect sense: Prop the iPad up in its stand in the kitchen, and use its large touchscreen to read your recipes from as you potter around in the kitchen…with some good cooking music playing from the iPod app at the same time.

These are just screenshots, of course, and the real proof of the pudding is in the eating–in this case, when we get our hands on these apps to try them out. They do act as an extremely promising indicator for the success of the iPad, though.

You’ll probably see a few more app stories like this pop up during iPad week, because probably even more than for the iPhone, the killer feature of the iPad will be the vast library of existing apps and these new iPad-specific designs. The ready availability of the software and the seamless App Store experience Apple’s cooked up will probably mean Apple steals huge chunks of the tablet marketplace before any serious competition arrives on sale. The App Store is the thing, it seems: It’s a whole new industry, spawning many a copycat, and if Apple can wind its predicted iAd mobile ad system into it too, then it’ll be a serious revenue stream for the company. Our only worry is that Apple needs to overhaul the Store sometime pretty soon, and in a more meaningful way than just slapping CoverFlow on there to aid app browsing–with all these hundreds of thousands of apps on sale, it’s going to get tricky to find the content you really want.

[BGR] Head over to this link if you want to see the huge slew of other screenshots too.

To keep up with this news, and non-Apple stuff too, follow me, Kit Eaton, on Twitter. That QR code on the left will take you to my Twitter feed also.

advertisement

advertisement

advertisement

About the author

I'm covering the science/tech/generally-exciting-and-innovative beat for Fast Company. Follow me on Twitter, or Google+ and you'll hear tons of interesting stuff, I promise.
I've also got a PhD, and worked in such roles as professional scientist and theater technician...thankfully avoiding jobs like bodyguard and chicken shed-cleaner (bonus points if you get that reference!)